iGear PPO5M Medical Specialist – Ratchet’s packing heat…LOTS of heat!

My goodness iGear.  You sure strung us all along long enough, but once again, knocked it right out of the park, at least in my opinion that is.   So let’s take a look at iGear’s PP05M “Medical Specialist:

Otherwise known to us as Ratchet (because I’m not writing that out every single time).   Now, fair warning, this is going to be picture heavy.  So lets jump right in:

First things first, I’m going to start taking pictures of the packaging.  In this case it warrants special attention, but packaging is a big part of any transformer so that’s the new policy.   The front of the box is nothing too special:

But it is very nice all the same and you have to love iGear’s “Till all are fun” logo!  The back of the box features a cool schematic drawing of Ratchet and his multitude of gear, but seems we’re looking at all that anyway, I’ll skip it.  What I did want to show is the “bio” iGear came up with – I think its just outstanding, filled with fan nod references left and right to the G1 mold:

Upon opening the box, Ratchet is packaged in several layers of plastic casing:

The first layer is his specialty gear, the second layer is a set of weapons that he shares in common with Iron Hide.  Once you get him out its on to transforming him for the first time.

This brings me to one of my very few issues with Ratchet and Iron Hide, the instructions are a one sheet somewhat vague picture-by-picture with no writing.  They aren’t terrible but there are some areas that could use a bit more explanation.  I’ll take a picture of Iron Hide’s when I review him.  On the back however, is a great ad for the “Mini-warriors” line up showing future releases.  (SWERVE!!!!YAY!~!!!!!!)  Once you get the transformation down, it gets really easy, and we end up with our favorite Doc here:

As you can see, even though he’s basically only three colors (white, red and black) he features some AMAZING detailing.  Detailing that someone (*ahem* *reprolables* *ahem*) could really bring out with some stickers.

The are two pieces of die cast metal in his legs, they’re basically “heels”:

Which work exceptionally well.  They allow Ratchet to balance very sturdily (is that a word?) on his legs…not that he’s very heavy, he’s actually perfectly balanced, but the weight of the metal means he’s not going anywhere.  But this brings me to my second (of three) issues, this one’s a bit of a bigger one – the bar you see here at a 45 degree angle is attached by ball joint to a panel that basically sits on the back of his leg.  It doesn’t peg in unfortunately, but it doesn’t move either. The problem is, getting it back there is a bit…awkward.  You kind of have to fiddle with it to swing it around the whole lower leg.  Once its back there though, its really out of the way.  Its not a huge issue, but it usually catches me off guard when transforming him.   The rest of the transformation is very straight forward and is somewhere between MP Prime and Classics Voyager prime in difficulty.  Nothing too complex, everything kinda goes where you’d think it would go.
Ratchet also comes with three (yes THREE) different heads to use.  I’m sticking with the red and silver verstion:

But there’s also black and silver like the G1 cartoon:

The blue scope is detachable.  You could argue its either a sniper scope like Perceptor has, or an analysis scope.  Either one works.

There’s also the “older” looking black and silver head:

All three are great, but again, I’m sticking with Silver and Red.  However, on a related note:  Dear Dr. Wu, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE MAKE AN IDW RATCHET HEAD!  PLEASE?!  I WILL GIVE YOU ALL MY MONEYS!!”

Articulation wise, he’s quite flexible, and you can get a LOT of different poses out of him –

But remember, he’s a collector’s piece and not really an “action figure” in the sense that Hasbro’s Deluxe classes are.   His purpose is more character accuracy and not “pew pew, I got you Megatron!”.

That being said, Ratchet comes with an absurd amount of gear:

I mean, Geeze Ratchet…you know you’re a doctor right?  Lol.  I’m going to show case most of this stuff – but I should point out, his blaster seen on the lower right here folds up and fits under his Van EXACTLY like RTS Jazz’s blaster does.  Which is awesome.

First up, we have the giant fusion cannon.  This will be the only time Ratchet holds this, I’m giving it to my AE Cliffjumper..for..reasons.

Next we have the GIANT sniper rifle:

I’m considering giving this to RTS Perceptor, but its REALLY big, and Blurr’s sniper rifle works better I think.

Finally he comes with a sort of rocket launcher that I’m thinking is a replica of his G1 weapon, but I don’t really recall what it looks like.  And why not, a combat knife…

Tools wize, he comes with everything but the kitchen sink including a Phillips and regular head screw driver (that I forgot to take a picture of him holding).

Dual saw and welder attachments, one for each hand, but I’m just going to put one of each on:

Various wrenches and…well..ratchets..

He comes with a his little radar dish that attaches to his comm panel on his forearm (which opens up, has a keyboard but no screen….again *ahem REPROLABLES…HURRY….*ahem*).

And last, but certainly not least, a mallet, similar to the one used in IDW when he’s fixing Rung’s arm!

Best…accessory…ever.   Lol.

Now, on to his Alt-mode, which we all know –

I mean…I don’t think there’s a single issue you could argue with this perfect G1 representation.  He even has rubber tires.  What more could you ask for?

Well…besides some REPROLABLES!

Think of how much better would this symbol look if that empty Autobot symbol was filled in?   you can see here too, he does have some panel lines, but they are fairly negligible, and frankly, compared to Classics Ratchet, they’re practically invisible.

As for size, well compared to G1 ‘Bee:

You can see how much he “folds up” into van mode.  He’s quite compact.  But as a final size comparison, here’s robot mode with ‘Bee and RTS Jazz:

So yeah…while the mold has a few slight issues (really just that back of the leg thing), he’s just amazing.  I went from having no Ratchets to having THE Ratchet, I’m quite pleased with the work iGear put into these guys.  Iron Hide will be mostly similar but I’ll post on him later this week once I open him up (saving him for Thursday I think..)  While I love these guys, I think some additional up-grade items would really help them shine.  Dr. Wu certain could do some additional head sculpts and Reprolabels…well…you get the point with them.
These guys are very expensive, but if you’re willing to pop for them, you won’t regret it!

In the meantime, I have Fall of Cybertron eating away at my time but I’m worried its going to make me want to invest in getting a beat up Metroplex and fixing him up.   In the meantime I’ve got a bunch of other stuff in the hopper.

Stay tuned!